Can You Find Wild Clay In The Mountains?
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- Опубліковано 9 кві 2024
- In which I go exploring for wild clay in the mountains of Arizona.
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Andy Ward PO Box 43601 Tucson, AZ 85733
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My channel members are the best and I try to give back to them as much as possible. Last week I had some of them out to my property to collect clay and minerals, also they get bonus videos, for example some of them got a long version of this video with outtakes two weeks ago. To become a channel member follow this link ua-cam.com/users/ancientpotteryjoin
Damn potters stealing my bags of clay, it's a real menace.
Are you serious?!?
Kids nowadays!
@@joulesstudio I can't leave a small baggie out without a security camera watching it nowadays!
@@joulesstudio its arizona, a vulture will probably take it back to their vulture kiln
Andy is so cool. I always look crazy to my family when harvesting clay but it's really awesome
Sometimes families don't understand, I know this from experience.
no day exploring is wasted
Definitely true, it has a huge positive impact on mental health, not to mention physical health.
Thank you for teaching us so much. We absolutely love this channel!
Glad you enjoy it!
I've been collecting clay because of you. Not sure if I will ever make anything, but it give me new appreciation of the earth. I enjoyed watching your hunt this morning.
Well there's no point in collecting it if you aren't going to make something from it. So go ahead and get started.
You can totally fire in a charcoal BBQ, just did it myself! I used a chimney starter and let the coals turn white before dumping them. Leave the lid cracked so oxygen can get in (I used a rock) and it REALLY helps if you have a good infrared thermometer. Lump charcoal is preferred over briquettes, those don't burn as hot. Maybe get a fan to blow if you're not getting up to temp.
Am I the only one who comes here for both the content AND the great music? Andy, I think you have an untapped talent as a music programmer! 😊
Glad you enjoy it!
Joules says that Andy is the best, and she should know because she's the best, too.
Joules from Baltimore?
@@AncientPottery Yep.
@@iemandanders353 She is the best!
Found a lightgrey very clean clay in a slade Area, but need to test it in firing.
Sounds good
Thanks for taking us along! I’m heading back to the rim soon in search of yellow clay slip for my St. John’s project.
Yellow is found here and there all over the rim country. I hope to go get some myself soon.
That reminds me of the Zuni Mountains,.. San Rafael Mesa particularly, and I remember red buttery clay there as well. I have been meaning to make it back there! Thanks for reminding me Andy! Enjoy!
I would love to go clay hunting in the Zuni Mountains, sounds awesome
@@AncientPottery We would be ready for that before we are ready for a live stream.. Whenever you're in Cibola, holler at us!
Clay hunting is half the fun. Any reason to be out there hiking around looking is a great day. Thanks Andy. Another great video.
That is so true.
Sorry, I keep rewatching the same videos. I enjoy them and helpful to review many of your thoughts and conclusions.
Most of my knowledge of clay and other land resources I’ve garnered from growing up in a ranching family and searching for cows, also while hunting, and from piñon picking. Doing those things get you out into the boonies, a lot of alone time to meditate and notice things in the land like clay, and get you off trails and paths that aren’t always very useful except for getting into an area.
I didn’t realize how special the successful firing was of that clay body during the gathering. Impressive work and thank you.
Well I did say it was a test.
❤
👍 Grandios landscape there in your areas! The colors are so bright and beautiful!
It really is!
@@AncientPottery
👍
Your ability to frame a shot, and edit the flow of your content, and add great music in the mix of it all is superb! I absolutely love your content
Thank you
On occasion when I am out exploring and need to pin point an exact location, I use the technique learned while a Boy Scout is to take compass readings of mountain peaks or other geological points. Then when I return to the area, I walk the line towards one of the points identified earlier until I find the spot (X marks the spot, walking the two lines that make the X). To practice this, try it when you find a USDA Bench Mark. It is a skill that comes in handy when you find various interesting sites/spots when exploring and wish to return to the exact spot I have hidden many 'Treasures' for my family to find this way. Thanks for sharing.
Triangulation, I am aware of this. We used to use that to pinpoint locations when I worked for the US Forest Service.
The white mineral might be diatomite or kaolanite
so limestone?
That was a lovely area. thx for doing this, filming it and sharing it with us.
Glad you enjoyed it
Looks like petrified wood to me (the nice weird stone). The clays that you found there seem to be primary clays from the weathering of the rock itself. Did it have a lot of grit in it?
No, almost no grit at all. I think it is a sedimentary clay as most of the material in that area is sedimentary. maybe an ancient sea bed or something.
Looks like fun! Glad you got to get out and have some fun hiking!
It was thanks
Wow, wild western clay is so much more different from our wild northeastern clay! Ours is very, very wet and compacted.
It really is!
Great Lakes Clay here ready to Fire right out of the ground
@@4quall So lucky!!! I don't have to add temper to my backyard clay either, about a mile from the Connecticut River...
I grew up in Ontario, and it was so easy to find. I live in coastal BC now. Good luck finding it here! 😂 even if it’s around, there’s so much vegetation that it would be buried! I’m sure there are small pockets somewhere, but no idea where!
While tilling the newest section of my garden, I got hints of an almost bluish grey streak in one of the rows, and I went back the next day with a shovel, pickaxe, and hope. I currently have a 5 foot deep hole, 3-4 feet wide dug out of the middle of my garden row, with countless 5 gallon buckets winding down the path full of bright grey clay. The hole was originally much wider, but it was more of two connected holes, and the other lower side has filled in with the rain runoff and has been filling itself back up with soil. I’m tempted to redig it out because the cracks that form across the top once it dries tells me that my soil is clay rich and that the runoff that’s filled the hole is going to be mostly clay quality. We’ll see.
Your videos inspired me to go out and harvest some wild clay from a local creek. I wet processed some clay rich dirt and dug up some exposed clay. It was literally crumbling off the exposed surface. I didn't even realize it was clay until I noticed that the "rock" I was standing on while settling the wet batch turned to mud on my shoes!
I am planning on firing in a charcoal BBQ hopefully this weekend if I can figure out what I want to make. The dry clay is a light tan color and the wet clay has a deeper gray color to it. I wonder how they'll fire!!
Have you experimented any more with the BBQ firing method? I read an article that left the lid cracked and maybe had a fan blowing and it worked nicely for firing. This is the only firing method available to me currently besides buying an electric kiln.
I have to say, I wasn't expecting to have so much fun with dirt! The exploring, the processing, and now the creating and firing! Plenty of exercise and fun so far.
I am not too sure about the BBQ method but if that is all you can do, have fun
@@AncientPottery it worked great for a first attempt! The bowls are fully fired, but the clay didn't all turn the same color. It looks like a large portion did turn to the classic terracotta color, but there are spots that are light gray like the clay was before it was fired.
I read the comments from your BBQ video and took some advice. I let the coals turn white before loading the grill and I left the lid cracked with a rock to get enough oxygen in. Watching the readings off the infrared thermometer was super helpful and kinda fun, glad I got one.
I can't wait to try making more pottery! I already have lots of ideas on what to make. I'd like to find a decent natural material to make a paint from, I'll need to do some research.
great adventure!
Yes it was!
I want to attend your next class/ camp out!
Civilian GPS has a slop factor built added into the results to lessen its utility for targetting.
It sure was a little sloppy, anyway it got me close enough.
Thanks for sharing! Love you Brother!
Thanks Nate!
I love what you do.❤
Thanks
I usually get my clay out in the mountains and use the levigation technique shown in the Mata Ortiz video to refine my clay. Then I add about 20% sand
Great outting video...... Love to see them
Thanks 👍
Andy thinking about Pot holes.😁🤔😂
I have just found your channel today and I absolutely love it. Great videos and a great vibe. A big thumbs up and a new sub ❤
Awesome! Thank you!
Thank you Andy. Im in the east Tennessee mountains amd pretty much only find red clay around here.
That's good. We have quite a bit of red clay here in Arizona but most of it is not suitable for making pottery,
the valley has a clay pad from cleveland to lenoir city. I am on that pad and will be testing my clay next week. If its good, I will come back here and invite you over!
I need to go to West Virginia because the clay there might be good. Literally is peanut butter during the rainy season. Truck would get stuck without fail.
Sounds good!
I've been trying to find clay in wv....any pointers?
@@ellenlinscheid9435 you might be able to find it on dirt roads, maybe in some hiking trail. Probably is good clay because of how WV used to be a shallow ocean. Maybe the clay will be where fossils are. I have found tons of tiny snaily fossils in slate, but the clay was actually higher on the mountain. Just go when it's wet and look for orangish mud.
@@ellenlinscheid9435 also I found it in southern WV.
I'd grab some clay with the 🐮pies mixed in for "extra" temper for my cousin who's always trying to prank me 🤣 and tell her later on
There really is such a thing as manure tempered pottery
Enjoyed !
Im 99% sure that this stone is red calcite it's probably best possible material to use as a grog. In my country people from Zlakusa village making hundreds of years traditional unglazed pottery named " zlakusa" for cooking on open flames and they use mixture of 50% clay and 50% ground calcite rocks. In old times they placed clacite rocks over pile of wood to smash it to smaller pieces using fire then continue grinding using hand tools all day.
Fascinating
By my experience mountains is best places to looking for clay especially small and medium mountains 300-800m hight
I’ve been to that area many years ago hunting. Watched the video yesterday so paid attention looking for possible clay on our trip through Gardner and Fish canyon across the valley today. Will take some bags next trip and collect some sample and have a go at it. Thank you for the inspiration.
Oh I know Fish and Gardner Canyons real good. My grandfather built the stone cabin in Fish Canyon. There is clay there and some real nice pigment minerals up at the mines.
@@AncientPottery We did stop at the cabin and are always in awe of the sycamore’s in the back and the bluff along the creek bend. A special place indeed. A small world!
Seek, and ye shall find. 😄👍
Great video and tip about gps on camera!
Thanks
G'day from down under Andy. I'm excited to share that from no experience, your vids have guided me to harvest my wild clay and even produce a few pieces. I'm wondering if you have covered decomposed granite, or have any thoughts about it, as I have unlimited quantities of it. And if it's ok to ask, I'd love your thoughts on mines characteristics. It low fires to a caramel shade of terracotta + burnishes and blackens really nicely in reduction. It's soft and workable, but reaches it's plasticity limits early. I've only used the sands it came with (mostly mica and quartz) as temper so far. To form any complex shapes I end up having to run wet hands or tools over the surface to smooth little cracks. And when fired, the surface comes up like a tiny dried out clay lake bed with 1/4 inch plates.. Not uninteresting, but potentially limited application. Anyway, thanks heaps for the video's. Edit> I meant to suggest a car stereo speaker magnet on a string for finding wild iron.
I have never tried decomposed granite clay, I have used decomposed granite temper. It sounds like maybe that clay is lacking in desirable qualities, maybe mixing it with a more plastic clay would improve it.
Andy I’ve been collecting a good batch of clay recently. What’s the best way to store clay? Dry, wet or perchance some other way?
I’m rather familiar with Elgin. Not too far from Fort Huachuca
Those rocks that you’re throwing about would be petrified wood.
I grew up in Sierra Vista so I know that country pretty well.
That's cool.
May I ask you, what are you using for temper? My last pot I got the temper out of the stream that I got the clay out of. It seemed to work, I've noticed in the ancient pot sherds I've seen that it was more coarse than what I used.
I used grog for the pot in this video, ground pot sherds. But I often use sand too.
I recently was gifted a big chunk of red clay. It was bought from a store and yet it has a bunch of tiny rocks in it that make it impossible to use because it crumbles. I plan on mixing it with water and then sifting it through a window pane but I wonder if I need to add temper to it? Since it came from a store I assume it already has it (?)
Have you ever heard of oregon blue clay? Well i just so happened to have found a large amount it while floating down a river in my raft.. it was so vibrant of a blue i had to dive down to see what it was and it turned out to be clay! I managed to get some up but now I'm not sure what to do with it. Any suggestion? Would you like a sample?
Seniman tembikar terbaik,cara membuat nya sangat bagus
That white stuff that you said you wasn't sure about what it was, it look like it could me chalk, maybe?
I tried making a few pots using hobby lobby clay mixed with sand like in your video. I didn’t use the same firing method, they didn’t get the white color like yours and when filled with water they disintegrated. Did I not get it hot enough, not enough sand or both?
didn't get hot enough
Have you considered traveling to different parts of the US to test out different clays?
Just curious. How do they find kaolin for ceramic in East Asian countries?
Is ceramic impossible to make for no kiln backyard pottery?
Where did you get your dry clay grinder?
amzn.to/3JepsOq
Hello I'm in Dallas tx, and it's hard for me to get some clay here, is there any kind of way if possible that you could ship me some?
I have a question, I found a clay that is plastic and easy to work with. But every time I fire a pot it starts to crack late into the firing, and the fired pieces come out very brittle.
Is this an error on my end or should I find another source?
Cracking is probably an indication that it needs more temper, but the brittleness may mean that it is either not a good clay or perhaps it needs a higher temperature to mature.
@@AncientPottery Thank you for the advice
Keep an eye out, Jaguars have been seen in the mountains south of Tucson and you might see one. Earlier this year, just about 30 miles south of where this video was take a young male was spotted. 🐱 👀
I would love to see one, but they are almost never seen by human eyes, they are almost exclusively seen with trail cams.
Quick question: I notice you have somewhat eclectic tastes in background music. I have yet to hear anything from "The Red Clay Ramblers". Seems like a match made in heaven. Are you not a fan?
All the music I use has to be licensed by me or I can get a copyright strike. I get my music from Epidemic Sound and they do not have access to the Red Clay Ramblers. Great name for a group though.
The pipes and drinkers are for the cows Andy, see all the cow manure!?
Yes and also for the deer
nice hat.
Thanks!
oh good, 3 scoops of clay to 1 tempur in the last video. . . Yeah, I got that. But then in this video. . . you say "I used 30% and it worked great! In the last video my clay suffered a catastrophic explosion! So don't use 20%!" no scoopage man! So Andy, in terms of scoops for us less edumacated folk. . . what would that be? like 2 to 1? or would that be 90?